PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ACE Private Risk Services, the high-net-worth personal lines business of
the ACE Group, has been recognized by Best’s Review Magazine’s
2013 Innovators Showcase for its Home Contents Valuation Service. By
introducing this new service in August 2011, ACE became the first and
remains the only high-net-worth insurance carrier to offer a select
group of its clients systematic, tailored estimates for determining
their personal property coverage at policy inception.

ACE Private Risk Services developed the Home Contents Valuation Service
after a pilot study of 400 high value homes found that standard industry
methods for determining the level of contents coverage left many
significantly underinsured. If unaddressed, this underinsurance problem
could cause dissatisfaction and delay at the time of a claim, diminished
insurance-to-value, and ultimately rate instability.

As a better solution, ACE armed its risk consultants, who were already
visiting high value homes to estimate structural replacement value, with
a proprietary tablet computer application to capture information about
the contents of the home. ACE developed this application in
collaboration with Asset Archives, Inc., recently acquired by Trov,
Inc., leaders in the field of tangible wealth management. The risk
consultants compare this data with Trov’s database of more than 200,000
items often found in high value homes to generate an estimate of
contents value.

Since deploying the service, ACE Private Risk Services has found that
more than half of homes valued between $2 million and $7.5 million have
insufficient coverage for contents, and the coverage deficiency averaged
$548,000 per home.

“We’re honored to be recognized by Best’s Review for our
innovation, and we’re especially pleased to help our clients and agents
make better, more informed decisions about the amount of coverage they
need,” said Gary Raphael, Senior Vice President, Risk Consulting, ACE
Private Risk Services. “The response from agents and clients has been
very positive. One client with a $2 million condominium wound up
increasing his personal property coverage by $1.3 million, showing how
extreme the problem of underinsurance for contents can be relative to
home value. Our closer review of their personal property also encourages
many clients to ultimately schedule their most prized possessions on a
valuables policy.”

ACE Private Risk Services is the ACE Group’s high-net-worth personal
insurance business, which provides specialty coverage for homeowners,
automobile, recreational marine, umbrella liability and valuables
collections insurance for individuals and families with emerging and
established wealth. Policies are issued by Bankers Standard Insurance
Co. and ACE Insurance Co. of the Midwest. Additional information can be
found at: www.aceprs.com.
The ACE Group is one of the world’s largest multiline property and
casualty insurers. With operations in 53 countries, ACE provides
commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal
accident supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance
to a diverse group of clients. ACE Limited, the parent company of the
ACE Group, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ACE) and is a
component of the S&P 500 index. Additional information can be found at: www.acegroup.com.